Every purchase you make through these Amazon links supports DVD Verdict's reviewing efforts. Thank you!

All Rise...

Appellate Judge Mac McEntire wonders when people will go back to ending sentences with "you dig?"

The Charge

Betrayed by those they trusted…destruction for all!

Opening Statement

Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder line was a series of home video releases
in which he shared some of the classic exploitation flicks that inspired him as
a filmmaker, It never really took off as a brand. That's all right, though. It
might be a short list, but Rolling Thunder did introduce some obscure gems to
new audiences. Here's three of those forgotten flicks on a single disc, in case
you missed them the first time around.

Facts of the Case

Mighty Peking Man An earthquake awakens a giant monster
deep within the jungle. Heroic adventurer Johnny Feng is hired to travel into
the wilderness and catch the beast. Still smarting from a bad breakup, Johnny is
eager to get out of the country. Then, he not only encounters the monster, but
the monster's adopted "daughter," a beautiful blonde jungle girl named
Samantha. Eventually, the giant ape reaches civilization, where buildings are
toppled, helicopters are swatted, and tanks are stepped on.

Detroit 9000 In 1970s Detroit, a black man is making
waves by running for office. When his campaign announcement is the scene of a
high-stakes robbery, a white cop and a black cop must set aside their
differences to track down the culprits.

Switchblade Sisters A girl gang, the Dagger Debs, rule
the streets. There are rivals to contend with, not to mention all the boys in
their lives. The real battle, though, isn't with guns or knives, but within
shifting loyalties among the gang, so best friends will become enemies by the
time it's over.

The Evidence

You could argue that one of these films doesn't belong, what with two gritty
crime flicks and one goofball giant ape movie. Yeah, you could argue that, but
I'm totally happy with the lineup, pretty much because Mighty Peking Man
is one of my all-time favorite so-bad-it's-good movies. Give me Mighty
Peking Man in a collection with any two other movies and I'll be
happy, just because I've got Mighty Peking Man.

Produced by the legendary Shaw Brothers studio, Mighty Peking Man
might be an oddity in many ways, but it nonetheless captures what we love about
Hong Kong action cinema. Let me explain: Hong Kong action doesn't have to mean
kung fu. The films coming out of Hong Kong during that industry's heyday were
all kinds, including crime thrillers, historical epics, and, yes, martial arts.
The thing was that these Chinese filmmakers looked at what was successful
overseas, from both Hollywood and in Japan, and they put their own spin on
it—first culturally, and second with a sense of extremism, taking the
intensity and the craziness of others' movies, and cranked them up, no matter
how low their budgets. Mighty Peking Man is quite obviously a rip-off of
King Kong, originally pitched to
compete with the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis remake, even though it ended up not
being released until a year later. It takes the basic King Kong formula and puts
a Hong Kong action spin on it. That doesn't mean there's a lot of kung fu or
John Woo bullet ballets, but it's Hong Kong action in its attitude. It has that
same sense of extremism that put the best Hong Kong blockbusters on the map.

Keep in mind, though, that you're not going to see Mighty Peking Man on any
"best of" lists that include Hard Boiled, Fist of Legend or Police Story. Truly of its era, Mighty
Peking Man is as camp as 1970s camp can only be. Does the giant ape suit look
fake and moth-eaten? Boy does it. Are the buildings, tanks, and helicopters
obvious models? And how. Do the several hippy-dippy
slow-motion-walk-on-the-beach romantic montages go on way too long? You better
believe it. The movie has been dipped ankle-deep in the river of '70s camp, and
yet it has that Hong Kong action extremism, so that it takes all that camp and
dials it up. The corniness of the man in the ape suit knocking over buildings is
made super corny. The lovey-dovey romance is made unbearably lovey-dovey. The
movie is corny and cheesy and phony, but good God is it entertaining.

With his anime-stud hair and his derring-do attitude, Danny Lee makes for a
convincing action hero as Johnny Feng. Hoping for an international audience,
producers cast Swedish supermodel Evelyne Kraft as the jungle girl Samantha, and
her cavorting throughout the entire movie in her loincloth bikini is obviously
one of the flick's biggest selling points. Notice how she doesn't just sit in
the giant ape's hand, she poses on its hand. Nonetheless, her character
is interesting. She's a reversal of the classic Fay Wray trope. Instead of being
an outsider pursued and frightened by the monster, she begins the movie as the
monster's companion. She cares for the monster right from the start, instead of
being terrorized by it. We'll just ignore how, despite being raised in the
remote jungle with no sign of civilization, her hair and makeup are perfect.

I guess I should say something about the other two movies. Switchblade
Sisters is a much-loved B-movie, courtesy of legendary exploitation director
Jack Hill (Spider Baby). To be honest, the
plot meanders horribly, and there's very little continuity from one scene to the
next, which is frustrating. The fun factor outweighs this complaint, though. The
fight scenes are filmed in a rough, you-are-there style, with the highlight
being a rumble turned all-out gunfight in a roller rink. Actress Bobby Lee
steals the show as gang leader Lace, delivering a number of memorable one-liners
with her harsh, shrill voice. This somehow works for both this character and the
movie's tone.

I had never seen Detroit 9000 before watching it for this review.
Knowing of its reputation as a Blaxploitation classic, I sat down expecting to
be all ironic about it, only to discover that it's a solid, well-written
detective flick. Racial issues are front and center, and there's a lot of
hand-wringing over whether the culprit will be revealed to be a white guy or a
black guy, but the movie never struck me as being hateful or mean-spirited. At
its heart, it's a crime flick, and goes through the crime flick motions
smoothly. The movie's centerpiece is a big action chase near the end, where a
small handful of crooks are mercilessly hunted down by what seems to be every
cop in Michigan. It's a brilliant exercise in over-the-top excess.

All three films benefitted from a full-on restoration for their original
Rolling Thunder re-releases, so all three look absolutely gorgeous now, with
bright, vivid colors, natural flesh tones, and deep, rich blacks. The audio,
stereo for Mighty Peking Man and mono for the other two, is decent but
not fully immersive. All three movies on one disc means we lose the original
bonus features. The Jack Hill/Quentin Tarantino commentary on Switchblade
Sisters is one of the best commentaries ever made, and it's sorely missed on
this disc. This disc has no extras of any kind.

Closing Statement

Three movies, all great fun. If you didn't snag them the first time around,
and if the bonus features aren't a big sticking point for you, then check this
one out.